Saturday, 10 September 2011

The fourth falcon

After yesterdays three falcon day, one of the first birds I saw at Druridge today was a juvenile peregrine, falcon number four of the weekend.....I'll struggle to get a fifth!

On the sea this morning were about 12 little gulls, just floating about, surely the same group that were on the beach yesterday. A brief seawatch produced little other than a stonking pale pomarine skua, picked up travelling south, before resting on the sea just off where I was stood. gannets were feeding and loafing very close to the shore, many of them were grey juvs. A great-crested grebe was on the sea.

The bushes were quiet, a few chiffs and a blackap or two. A few meadow pipits and a stonechat on the dunes.

One the big pool, a female scaup was the highlight. There were a few female tufties with a lot of white around the base of bill and a pucker scaup amongst them. Over by the haul road, male marsh harrier was hunting and getting harassed by crows.

Storm
A huge storm passed-by, to the west of Druridge, then around to the north over Coquet Island. It appeared dark on its leading edge, but the sky was white behind it, I wonder if it was hail stones? During the storm, the wind really picked up and moved from the south-east around to the south-east....very odd.


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